Browsing by Author "Saunders, Christopher"
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- ItemOpen AccessAspects of the impact of apartheid on commerce and industry in the Western Cape, 1960 to 1990(2008) Wood, Robert Jameson; Saunders, ChristopherThe thesis considers the economic performance of South Africa, from the substantial and sustained growth from 1960 to 1974, followed by a period when the South African economy weakened. The Western Cape economy was not reliant on mining, but had a more stable economy relying on agriculture, property and financial services, and later in the period developed high-tech service industries. Business in South Africa suffered punitive rates of tax to pay for the country's apartheid policies. The establishment of the Bantustans as a homeland for the black ethnic groups was a cornerstone of the National Party policy and the cost burden was enormous with the provision of all the trappings of full nationhood. The job reservation policies, which reserved skilled occupations created a skill shortage in the country and towards the end of the period by necessity the policy 'frayed at the edges'. Western Cape business also suffered the impact of the coloured labour preference policy, which was designed to prevent the movement of blacks to the Western Cape.
- ItemOpen AccessThe Association Young Africa and its context with special reference to Trafalgar High School(2006) Hess, Albert; Saunders, ChristopherThis thesis examines the social orientations of the members of the Association Young Africa (AYA), and the circumstances that surrounded the founding of the organization at Trafalgar High School. It endeavours to place these elements in their personal lives as students, their arrests and imprisonment on Robben Island, and the very limited developments that followed on the mainland after their release. The research is important because its central focus, the history of the AYA, is unrecorded. Its significance stems from the fact that the AYA was the first militant student group from the Cape to plan action of a violent nature against state oppression.
- ItemRestrictedBeyond white supremacy(Taylor & Francis, 2006) Saunders, ChristopherThe author recalls how he first became interested in American studies and comparisons in 1967, and how, twelve years later, he attended a conference (as did George Fredrickson) comparing the U.S. and South African frontiers. The author then weighs the merits of White Supremacy and Black Liberation individually, and writes that “[w]hat is needed now is for someone to bring the two stories together and to write a fully comparative study of both processes in both countries.”
- ItemOpen AccessThe black concentration camps of the South African War, 1899-1902(2003) Kessler, Stowell van Courtland; Saunders, ChristopherIncludes bibliography.
- ItemOpen AccessThe Cape Khoisan in the Eastern districts of the colony before and after Ordinance 50 of 1828(1997) Malherbe, Vertrees Canby; Saunders, Christopher; Newton-King, SMy study arose from a wish to consolidate work begun in the 1970s concerning the indigenous people of the Cape - the 'Bushmen' and 'Hottentots' of the historical record who, properly, are called San and Khoi, or 'the Khoisan' • My idea was to build upon existing work (of others, chiefly, but also of my own) concerning their dispossession and subordination by colonists from Europe. The focus has, as far as possible, been the people themselves, with Ordinance 50 of 1828 the pivotal point. The ordinance removed certain disabilities peculiar to the Khoisan and other 'free people of colour' in the colony, and conferred equality before the law. Other researchers have explored the alleged vagrancy of Ordinance SO's beneficiaries, its impact upon wages, and the government's administration of the law. My project is to uncover all and any of the ways in which the ordinance, in tandem with some simultaneous reforms, was actually experienced by Khoisan. The hint (by L. C. Duly) that a study of 'informal processes' at the local level might yield fresh insights suggested a means to raise the visibility of the Khoisan in the colony's 'master narrative' and, in the process, break new ground. It has proved well-suited to the aim of keeping Khoisan experience to the fore without slipping around to more familiar ways of seeing whereby public policy, the interests of elites, or the application of the law insinuate themselves as principal concerns. The most important source materials used are in the Cape Archives Depot of the State Archives. These include mission documents as well as government records and correspondence. Three newspapers began publication during the period of the study (c. 1820-1835). These are housed at the South African Library, as are certain private journals, travel books, and political commentaries of the time. Valuable secondary works and dissertations, in this and related fields, are available at the Jagger and African Studies libraries at the University of Cape Town. Part I provides a historiographical review and sets out the aims and objects of the study. Part II deals with economy and government, law, custom and daily life prior to the 50th ordinance. The first year after it was law, when the Khoisan, officials and colonists tested its provisions, is the subject of Part III. Part IV carries the account to 18 34-35 when a draft vagrant law shook the Khoisan, and war brought havoc to the eastern frontier. The final section draws together certain themes - self-perceptions and identity, acculturation and the status of traditional lifestyles, the Khoisan's 'ancient' and (new) 'burgher' claim to the land, to mention some. The study concludes that the power of Ordinance 50 to transform the lives of those it proposed to liberate (the Khoisan, principally) has been inflated - more strikingly by those who have looked back on it than by its beneficiaries and their mentors at the time.
- ItemOpen AccessConversations with historians(2005) Saunders, Christopher; Kros, CynthiaThe editors of the South African Historical Journal decided to commemorate its 51st issue by asking a range of historians — some established, some emerging — to reflect on the state of the discipline. We present an edited collation below of the answers we received. Some of the responses were written, while others were given in the course of interviews with us, which may account for differences in structure, tone and length. We would like to thank our respondents, and we hope that their contributions will open a debate that will continue in future issues of the Journal.
- ItemOpen AccessThe environmental impact of the armed conflict in Southern Mozambique, 1977-1992(2003) Pihale, Estêvão; Darch, Colin; Saunders, ChristopherThis dissertation analyses the main environmental problems that were faced during the armed conflict in Mozambique between 1977 to 1992. The subject matter covered by this dissertation is diverse, including the political economy of the Region South of the Save River, the character of armed conflict and the environmental profile on the effects of the conflict in Southern Mozambique. Because when South African regime backed Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO) in the early 1980s, the conflict had escalated in Southern Mozambique, and accelerated environmental problems, combined with natural disasters such as floods and droughts.
- ItemOpen AccessExperiencing the armed struggle : the Soweto generation and after(2007) Von den Steinen, Lynda; Saunders, ChristopherThis study explores the experiences of the rank-and-file soldiers of Umkhonto we Sizwe and the Azanian People's Liberation Anny. Extensive interviews by the author and other researchers reveal the voices of the soldiers themselves. The African National Congress and Pan African Congress archives at the University of the Western Cape and the University of Fort Hare supplement and verify these oral testimonies, as do some published sources. Most previously published materials about the armed struggle against apartheid have already focused on diplomacy, strategy and tactics, operations, leadership, and human rights abuses to the neglect of the soldiers' actual experiences. This study complements these with significant new oral history materials from the Soweto generation of soldiers and their successors. When dealing with MK, many authors have documented issues of the camp structure in Angola, and operations inside South Africa, so much of this detail is only addressed briefly, leaving space to explore the soldiers' experiences. In the case of APLA, very little has been written on its history, and more detail is provided on these subjects. This study therefore deals with the soldiers' politicisation and motivation for joining the armed struggle, their experiences in leaving South Africa and training in exile, the crises in exile which limited their effectiveness for a time, their return to fight in South Africa, and their difficulties in the "new" South Africa. These materials reveal that vast problems remain facing these veterans of the struggle against apartheid, and that they have the potential, if properly supported and employed, to contribute substantially to the development of present day South Africa. Conversely, if their neglect continues, they also have the potential to bring vast harm to the country. Further use of the investigative tools of oral history, especially if extended to the former soldiers' vernacular languages, is necessary to augment the history of South Africa, and these soldiers' contributions.
- ItemOpen AccessA forgotten corner of Namibia: aspects of the history of the Caprivi Strip, c1939-1980(2000) Kangumu, Bennett; Saunders, ChristopherA major theme in this study Strip is South Africa's administration of the Eastern Caprivi Strip from 1939 to 1980, a period of 41 years. This general study of aspects of the history of the Caprivi Strip deals with a variety of themes. A good number of them could comprise separate studies. These include migrant labour, mission or Christian eduction, subsistence economy, medical history, traditional institutions and contested chieftaincies, cross border history, landscape perceptions. Instead of specificity, a researcher on a area such as the Caprivi Strip where there is poverty of research will always run the risk of engaging in general research, a drive to present just anything untold about the place. This is why this study emphasises a historical period, rather than a specific theme, because the researcher is able to touch on a multiplicity of topics relevant to the period under review. The aim is to present introductory research that will hopefully ignite further enquiry into the different themes raised.
- ItemRestrictedFrom slavery to freedom : the Oromo slave children of Lovedale, prosopography and profiles.(2013) Shell, Sandra Rowoldt; Saunders, ChristopherIn 1888, eighty years after Britain ended its oceanic slave trade, a British warship liberated a consignment of Oromo child slaves in the Red Sea and took them to Aden. A year later, a further group of liberated Oromo slave children joined them at a Free Church of Scotland mission at Sheikh Othman, just north of Aden. When a number of the children died within a short space of time, the missionaries had to decide on a healthier institution for their care. After medical treatment and a further year of recuperation, the missionaries shipped sixty-four Oromo children to Lovedale Institution in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. From 1890, Lovedale baptised the children into the Christian faith, taught them and trained them. By 1910, approximately one third had died, one third had settled in the Cape of Good Hope, one third had returned to Ethiopia and one had headed for the United States. The present study is a cohort-based, longitudinal prosopography of this group of Oromo slave children, based on the core documentation of the children’s own first passage accounts, supplemented by numerous and varied independent primary sources.
- ItemOpen AccessThe history and politics of liberation archives at Fort Hare(2013) Maaba, Lucius Bavusile; Saunders, ChristopherThis thesis, the first of its kind on liberation historiography, seeks to put the liberation movements archives housed at the University of Fort Hare in context. The thesis focuses mainly on the 1990s, when the repatriation of struggle material by Fort Hare working hand in glove with the liberation movements, mainly the African National Congress ANC), the Pan Africanist Congress(PAC) and the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), was at its height.
- ItemOpen AccessA history of the Xhosa of the Northern Cape, 1795-1879(1985) Anderson, Elisabeth Dell; Webb, Colin; Saunders, Christopher
- ItemOpen AccessA missionary life among the amaXhosa : the Eastern Cape journals of James Laing, 1830-1836(2006) Shell, Sandra Rowoldt; Saunders, ChristopherThis thesis is a critical edition of a section of the journals of the Reverend James Laing of the Glasgow Missionary Society. The first scholarly study of the Laing journals, this thesis seeks to contribute towards a new understanding of the early days of transcultural interchange on the Eastern Cape frontier. The only previous published work on Laing is William Govan's hagiographical Memorials of the Missionary Career of the Rev. James Laing, Missionary of the Free Church of Scotland in Kaffi'aria published in Glasgow by David Bryce and Son in 1875. This thesis attempts to make Laing's text as accessible to today's readers as possible. To this end, the text is a faithful transcription of the original, augmented by a contextual introduction, detailed footnotes and a comprehensive index. James Laing was born on 6 September 1803 and was raised in the Scottish Lowlands. He read classics, philosophy, theology and a range of medical subjects at Edinburgh University where he enrolled in 1822. The Glasgow Missionary Society assigned Laing to Burnshill Mission on the Eastern Cape frontier. He sailed for the Cape on 11 October 1830. From that day, he kept a journal almost without break, until a week before his death. Laing's journals comprise four bound volumes and more than two thousand pages in toto. These are housed in the Cory Library for Historical Research, Rhodes University as part of the Lovedale Institution Collection. Laing's journal constitutes a major element in the small body of extant Glasgow Missionary Society records. It was decided to edit, for this thesis, the first portion of the journals only.
- ItemOpen AccessMulti-party elections in Southern Africa : the cases of Namibia and Mozambique, 1989-1999(2004) Mukumbi wa Nyembo, Jules; Saunders, ChristopherThis dissertation essentially examines the context and the conduct of elections held in the southern African region, particularly in Namibia and Mozambique between 1989 and 1999. These elections crystallized a wider process of democratization during the last decade, in which attempts were made to shift from various forms of authoritarian rule (colonial or racial oligarchies, military regimes, one-party states, or presidential rule) to pluralist parliamentary politics. This study is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the post-conflict elections. In this case the international community has assisted Namibia and Mozambique in various ways. The second part focuses on the electoral management in both states, with particular emphasis on the running of the second multiparty general elections. This study is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the post-conflict elections. In this case the international community has assisted Namibia and Mozambique in various ways. The second part focuses on the electoral management in both states, with particular emphasis on the running of the second multiparty general elections.
- ItemOpen AccessNew Brighton, Port Elizabeth c1903-1953 : a history of an urban African community(1994) Baines, Gary Fred; Saunders, ChristopherThis thesis explores the history of New Brighton in the context of Port Elizabeth's political economy. This port city was essentially an entrepôt until primary industrialisation commenced after the First World War. Jobs in the footwear and motor assembly plants were the preserve of unskilled white (Afrikaans-speaking) workers recently arrived from the city's hinterland. A relatively stable African population grew in the absence of influx controls, and provided a large pool of unskilled labour. A fairly large Coloured population made it more difficult for Africans to acquire employment and skills. With the spurt in industrial growth from the mid- 1940s, Africans were increasingly employed in the manufacturing sector. But the majority of the African workforce still performed unskilled work at or below the minimum wage. Port Elizabeth's African population was amongst the most fully proletarianised but the poorest in the country. The changing labour needs of Port Elizabeth's employers meant that the powerful commercial-cum- industrial lobby sought to influence the City Council to ignore influx control measures introduced in the 1930s. Instead, routine control of New Brighton residents was dependent on a 'location strategy' which included the issue of registration cards as the key to obtaining houses and beer brewing privileges. The Advisory Board provided a channel for patronage dispensed by the Superintendent and a means of co-opting prominent residents and their supporters. The usual litany of social ills such as grinding poverty, overcrowding and breakdown of family structures led to the growth of a subculture of violence amongst some of the youth from the late 1940s. This fed into the simmering discontent caused by the Council's insistence on rent increases and the heightened political expectations caused by the defiance campaign, which irrupted 'in the 1952 riots. Meanwhile, a realignment of political forces in the local state had changed the balance of power in favour of those groups which advocated a tighter rein on labour regulation and the political activities of local Africans. Pressure from this source and the central state in the aftermath of the riots, was more telling than that of the 'liberal' lobby and business interests on the PECC. The combination of state repression and the Council's hastily introduced curbs on political activities reduced the likelihood of ANC-led resistance to the imposition of passes. In 1953 the Council finally jettisoned its 'liberalism' and introduced influx control measures and labour registration. It applied the full force of the law against New Brighton residents whose reputation for being a law-abiding community had served to vindicate the Council's 'progressive' policies towards Africans in the first place.
- ItemRestrictedPerspectives on the transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa(2004) Saunders, ChristopherThe now substantial literature on the transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa defines ‘transition’ in different ways. In the third edition of his History of South Africa (2001), Leonard Thompson devoted a chapter to the political transition that took place between 1989 and 1994.1 Rodney Davenport wrote in similar vein in lectures published in Canada as The Birth of the New South Africa and in South Africa as The Transfer of Power in South Africa. 2 Both historians implied that the fundamentals of the apartheid order were still in place in 1989, and that the apartheid order could have continued for some time, for the state was not on its knees and the security forces stood firmly behind it. Instead of apartheid continuing, however, we know that its pillars – the Population Registration Act, Group Areas Act and Land Act prime among them – were repealed in the early 1990s, and in 1994 political apartheid was ended with the introduction of a constitution providing for one person one vote and that all citizens were equal before the law. So within the remarkably short period of five years, in this interpretation, a transition took place from an apartheid order to a formally democratic one, with a new government taking office after the first democratic election in April 1994.
- ItemOpen AccessPolitical and social theories of Transkeian administrators in the late nineteenth century(1978) Martin, Samuel John Russell; Saunders, Christopher; Webb, ColinThis study sets out to examine the order of categories and values, structuring men's thought and perception at a fundamental level although not systematically formulated, in terms of which the Transkeian magistrates viewed the African communities under their governance. It is thus an essay in colonial administration, but the critical focus has been narrowed and is centred primarily upon the ideas and assumptions the magistrates used in the business of administration to explain society, government and law. At the same time, a major concern of this work has been to place the particular problem with which it deals - the elucidation of magisterial ideas and attitudes - within a wider framework of contemporary social and political thought, to fit them into the matrix of Victorian culture as it conditioned and shaped the administrators' perceptions and responses touching the indigenous black population. A methodological pitfall opens here, of assimilating individual or local currents of ideas to more general patterns - the 'climate of opinion' or what Matthew Arnold called the 'main movement of mind' of the age; of trying to press disparate, multifarious and often carelessly formulated ideas and assumptions into a conceptual framework or theoretical construct that was independently arrived at and presented as given. The mode of procedure followed was one that allowed the source material to suggest broader patterns and larger perspectives according to which it could be most intelligibly and satisfyingly ordered; one also that wove together various logically independent concepts and general propositions, derived from general studies of the topic and period, and brought them to bear on the Transkeian situation. In this way it is hoped that the main features and contours of the magisterial mind have been rendered with as much precision of detail and emphasis as the demands of analytical depth and conceptual rigour would permit.
- ItemOpen AccessPoverty, living conditions and social relations : aspects of life in Cape Town in the 1830's(1977) Judges, Shirley Ann; Saunders, ChristopherThe chief topic discussed in this thesis is poverty - whether it existed in Cape Town during the 1830s; if so, how it can be measured, how it came to exist. Related to this are general living conditions in Cape Town and in particular, the effect their poverty had on the living conditions, health and well-being of the poor. There are also the questions of whether there was any relationship between poverty and race and/or poverty and slavery, and the extent to which social relations in Cape Town were based an economic or racial considerations. Also, given the changes in the status of coloured people, what effect these changes had on Cape Town society during this period. The emphasis throughout this thesis is on 'the poor'. This raises the question of what 'the poor' and 'poverty' actually mean. In Section I an attempt is made to define poverty 'by drawing up an estimate of minimum family expenditure, thus establishing a 'poverty line'. Some occupations are identified, the earnings from which were insufficient to meet this minimum. This provides an indication of the sort of people likely to have been suffering poverty.
- ItemOpen AccessRace, housing and town planning in Cape Town, c.1920-1940 : with special reference to District Six(1993) Barnett, Naomi; Saunders, ChristopherThis thesis traces the Cape Town Council's housing policy from 1920 to 1940 in relation to those citizens (in this instance members of the Coloured community) who could not afford to home themselves. The onus to provide such housing in urban areas rested upon the local authority in terms of the Housing Act No. 35 of 1920. The 'racial factor' is put into context, the thesis maintaining that the 'Cape liberal tradition' notwithstanding, for Cape Town as for all other South African municipalities, there was no question but that separate housing provision would be provided for the separate racial groups. District Six is shown to have been one of the most overcrowded, poverty-stricken and neglected areas in the city, and quite naturally occupies a leading role in the thesis. The effects of the Slums Act No. 53 of 1934 on District Six is emphasised: the Act was used not only to facilitate slum demolition, but, more importantly, to enable Council to plan an entirely new District Six on the Council-made ruins of the old. This thesis thus maintains that, contrary to previous research, the Slums Act was concerned only with slum elimination, and was not designed to ensure alternative accommodation for evicted slum dwellers. Instead, it was used to fashion a proposed new town plan for Cape Town. The plan for a new District Six which emerged in 1940 would have meant the annihilation of the District as sorely as the whites-only promulgation under the Group Areas Act in 1966 did. This is examined in the last-but-one chapter. Early in 1936 a new interpretation of the Slums Act which had not been apparent when the Act was promulgated in 1934, enabled the Council to ignore the rehousing of evicted slum dwellers. Now it was ruled that slum demolition should not be held back 'by the use of the excuse' that no alternative accommodation was available for the victims. The Slums Act, ironically, thus relieved the Council of the responsibility of rehousing evicted slum dwellers. By this stage, it was apparent that the City Engineer was not interested in the restoration and upgrading of individual buildings in District Six, but was bent on obtaining, by judicious demolition, as many areas as possible of 'suitable size and dimensions' for further development, not necessarily rehousing. Another preoccupation of this thesis is the Council's dilatory response to the housing needs of its citizens, the thesis assessing the responsible factors. Emphasising Council's ineptness or unwillingness to get to grips with the housing crisis, is a chapter on the Council's housing of the poor and the very poor. All in all this thesis demonstrates the Council's over-riding reluctance to 'burden' the ratepayers with the provision of much-needed housing, a reluctance emphasised by Council's oft-repeated protestations that contemplated housing schemes would not cost the ratepayers a penny. As shown, this was indeed true - housing was profitable and a 'good investment' for the city. This factor was, however, conveniently ignored, Council pursuing a parsimonious housing policy dreadfully slowly, never going beyond the fringes of the city's housing needs.
- ItemOpen AccessRaymond Mhlaba and the genesis of the Congress Aliance : a political biography(1993) Orie, Thembeka; Saunders, Christopher; Bundy, ColinThe dominant and current theory about the African National Congress in the 1940s is that the Youth League in particular, led by the young, aspirant middle-class intellectuals, radicalised the organisation: that it was a bourgeois revolution within the ANC that led to its rejuvenation. This thesis presents an alternative viewpoint. The study reveals that in Port Elizabeth, there was a distinctively communist-trade unionist oriented group which revolutionalised the ANC: It was this group which consolidated racial and class co-operation against the apartheid system in the mid-1940s and early 1950s. This thesis postulates that in Port Elizabeth it was the working-class activists such as Raymond Mhlaba, with their militant working-class ideologies that gave the ANC a new lease of life and gave the organisation its broad mass appeal. The thesis therefore examines Raymond Mhlaba as an actor in the founding of the Congress Alliance in Port Elizabeth. It looks at how Mhlaba succeeded in building a firm alliance between the trade union movement, the Communist Party and the ANC. It is through this alliance that we learn about the political transformation of the ANC 'from below', that is, from a working-class cadre of activists rather than the middle-class leadership. Mhlaba himself was involved in all three formations and thus played a key role in the alliance politics. Chapter one examines the period before 1941 in order to provide background to the central focus of the study. It looks at the history of the Eastern Cape, Mhlaba's birth place Fort Beaufort, and his early life in the context of the subject of enquiry, the national struggle in its wider context, and the political economy of the period between 1910 to 1941. Through these perspectives the study is able to examine and show the changing forms that the struggle takes at different periods of time. It gives an understanding of the influence of those historical developments on the period and of the form that the struggle took during the period under study. Chapter two looks at the period 1942 to 1946, the years of Mhlaba's early involvement in the labour and political movements. It examines how, when and why Mhlaba got involved in these movements. The study considers the relationship between the Council of Non-European Trade Unions (CNETU) trade unionists, the communists and the ANC activists. (Mhlaba belonged to all three formations.) It looks at how the ANC leadership was changed from a middle into a working class and Mhlaba's role in this transformation. Also the study examines how mass action in this period reflected racial and class co- operation; and the emergence of a distinctively working class leadership. Chapter three examines Mhlaba's leadership role in the ANC and the Communist Party. It looks at examples of mass action and a selection of important events that took place between 1947 to 1952, in order to demonstrate how the foundation of the broad Congress Alliance solidified. That unity was influenced by the changing polity, post war conditions, and new leadership which included Mhlaba, in Port Elizabeth. Chapter four examines the clandestine conditions in which Mhlaba operated, from 1953 until his imprisonment at Rivonia in 1963. It looks at: the transition from open mass organisation to underground mobilisation; the implementation of the M-Plan; the activities of the Communist Party underground. At the same time it examines the sustenance of the mass organisation through the formation of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and the use of strategies such as stayaways and consumer boycotts in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The chapter also looks at repression by the government, which led to Mhlaba's departure to China, and finally his arrest at Rivonia in 1963.